Bloomberg: Sunday’s 9/11 Ceremony a Civil, Not Religious Occasion

Mayor Michael Bloomberg is defending his decision to exclude religious leaders from New York City’s ceremony commemorating the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

“It’s a civil ceremony. There are plenty of opportunities for people to have their religious ceremonies,” Bloomberg said on his weekly radio show. “Some people don’t want to go to a religious ceremony with another religion. And the number of different religions in this city are really quite amazing.”

Mayoral aides have previously defended Bloomberg’s decision by saying it would be complicated and controversial to choose which religious leaders would speak at the ceremony. But on Friday, the mayor said that isn’t the issue.

“It isn’t that you can’t pick and choose, you shouldn’t pick and choose,” Bloomberg said. “If you want to have a service for your religion, you can have it in your church or in a field, or whatever.”

At one point, the mayor suggested that allowing clergy to speak at 9/11 ceremony would be, in effect, thrusting religion upon the thousands of attendees and the millions more watching, some of whom might object.

Bloomberg said terrorists want to take away freedom of religion, “but they don’t like the fact that you have one religion and I have another. They believe that they know what’s right. And it may be right for them. But government shouldn’t be forcing it down people’s throats.”

Despite calls from religious leaders and former Mayor Rudolph Giuliani for the mayor to reverse course and allow clergy to speak at Sunday’s ceremony, the mayor said he is confident he made the right call. Religious leaders have not spoken at any previous city ceremonies commemorating the attacks.

In an interview last week with The Wall Street Journal, Giuliani beseeched the mayor to reconsider his stance.

“If I were the mayor, and this came up, I’d have a religious presence there,” Giuliani said.

“I think [ Bloomberg] has a right to make the decision and say, ‘We’re going to do it exactly the same as we did it in the past,’” Giuliani said. “He also has the ability to say, ‘We’ll make a slight alteration in light of how important religion was to many of these people.’ It could be done very simply by just having a priest, a rabbi, a minister and an imam together and say a little prayer at the beginning.”

The mayor’s aides have said there is no chance of a reversal, and the mayor made that clear during his remarks Friday. “I think it’s the right policy. Hopefully, it will be continued long after you and I are gone,” he said.